A Hard Day On The Slopes

Castle Craig is up there SOMEHWERE. I was there, too.

Visit #1232, Saturday 8 February 20, 11:35AM-2:35PM, 3.2 miles, 18.5lbs. of litter.
Temps in the 30's, sunny with a brisk breeze.

This week was my quasi-annual, semi-obligatory task of picking up litter from the slope below Castle Craig. People toss their bottles and cans (among other things) off from Castle Craig and you eventually can see it as you hike up the trail toward Castle Craig. A real eyesore. I choose a cold time of year to do this to avoid running into snakes...

The photo above doesn't do justice to how difficult it is to traverse all that loose trap rock on such a steep slope. After much groveling and head banging I came up with a reasonable solution.

A hiking pole gives me a measure of stability even if it does tie up one hand from holding a trash bag or picking things up.

Enroute to that trail, I hiked past the Halfway House and came across this newly fallen tree, which wasn't budging. I hope to return next week to cut it away. A hand saw should be all I need.

Once I finished crawling around on that slope collecting litter, I hiked over I-691 and back to the park to deposit my bags.

I did notice the rocks on the slope were holding on to and reflecting the sun's energy, generating a measure of late winter warmth. It was nice.

Almost back to the parking lot, directly across from Mirror Lake, I came upon my Find of the Week.

Not sure what it is? It's a spent shell casing from a .45 caliber handgun. Was there a shooting in Hubbard Park? A recent report of shots fired? Thinking I would do my civic duty, when I arrived home I visited the Meriden Police Department web page to see if they had a means of contacting them via e-mail about my find.

They did. When I submitted my information, up popped an error message stating my e-mail was stored but delivery to the right people was uncertain, and recommended calling the police department. I promise to hold on to the shell and stop by the police department on Monday.

In case you're interested, you can actually match up what weapon this shell was fired from by comparing the dent on the primer (seen in the photo) to the firing pin on the handgun as both are almost as unique as fingerprints.